


she plays bass

by loppxi



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Band Fic, F/F, Gay Panic, Getting Together, Girl Band, Music, Mutual Pining, Tags Contain Spoilers, ashlyn drummer, gina bass, kourtney lead guitarist, nini lead vocals, the Band AU that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21778330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loppxi/pseuds/loppxi
Summary: nini writes a song about gina all while being in a band with her
Relationships: Gina Porter/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	she plays bass

" _How i wish we had dated_ ," Nini sang as she strummed on their guitar. She furrowed her eyebrows and took a pen and scribbled away the lyrics, changing it in the process. 

" _How i wish we could just date_ ," Nini sang again, this time with the changed lyrics. 

"Whatcha up to?" Kourtney appeared and leaned on her door. 

"Nothing," Nini continued strumming her guitar. "Just writing a song."

"Girl, you should take a break," Kourtney worryingly said. "We have a gig on Sunday."

"Just had some inspiration."

"About who?" Nini could hear the teasing in Kourtney's voice.

"It's not a person," groaned Nini as she tried to play the guitar. 

"Come on, now," Kourtney wiggled her eyebrows while smirking, prompting Nini to admit.

"Okay fine! It's about Gin."

"Knew it!" Kourtney shouted as she made a small fist down. 

"You already knew about my crush on Gin for months," Nini argued. 

"How obvious can I be..."

"But it's still my win!" Kourtney cheered. 

"Yeah, yeah..." Nini let out a sigh before continuing to play her guitar again. 

Nini began softly humming with her guitar when she realised that Kourtney hasn't left her room yet. 

"Aren't you leaving?" 

"Why would I do that when i don't even know how the song sounds like?" 

"Okay then, here goes." A confused Nini cleared her throat before she sang. 

" _She plays bass, yeah she plays bass,_ " Nini's soft voice lit up the silent room, along with the notes from her guitar. 

" _How i wish we could just_ date?" Nini awkwardly sang off-key to the strums. 

"It's still a work in progress..." She gave an awkward cheese. 

"I love it so far but she plays bass?" Kourtney critiqued. "Won't she know?"

"I don't think this is going to be an actual song for our band," Nini puts down her guitar. "At least I don't think so..."

"Well, if you want help with the instrumentals or anything, I'm just a room away."

"I'll take note of that."

Just before Kourtney went off, she poked her head back into Nini's room again, this time with sly grin. 

"I bet you must be so glad that Gina isn't your roommate right now."

"Shut up!"

Nini's door was slammed closed. 

* * *

Nini sank down into a sofa as she waited for her bandmates to come. It was a Friday evening and they all agreed to practice one last time before the gig. They were practicing in a rented studio since their usual place, which was Ashlyn's garage, was being heavily occupied by her parents at the moment. 

Her guitar was placed next to the sofa as she slowly drank a cup of hot tea that the owner kindly gave to her. 

She was early, about 20 minutes or so. The others were busy with their part time jobs while Nini was free the whole day so she decided to head out since she was bored. The only problem was she had to sit here silently while other people passed by. 

She felt vibrations from her pocket and fumbled to get her phone while putting down her cup of tea. 

**_moo moo_ **😼

**ash :DD**

sorry guys! i'm going to be a few minutes late since my manager called for a sudden meeting

**kourt**

me too :(( the train was delayed by a few minutes

 **nae nae**

its okay guys

wait

does that mean that i'm alone with gin for a while? 

**kourt**

yes

**nae nae**

shit

Nini closed her phone and stared at it before full on panic crawls onto her. Her alone with Gina? No way. This can't be true. How was she going to act around her? She can't hide her puppy eyes when Ashlyn and Kourtney wasn't joking around. It's going to be so aw-

"Hey!" A familiar voice said out to Nini.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. 

Nini knew who the voice belonged to. 

"Hey, Gin!" She plastered a grin over her internal panic and finally looked up from her phone. 

Gina's curly hair was tied up and driplets of sweat was on her face. Her eyes were crinkled up with lightly blushed cheeks and a soft smile on her plush lips. Nini wanted to kiss those lips so badly. She also wore a plain sweater which made her even more cuter than before and only Science (or Nini) could explain why. 

Nini's internal panic was now replaced with gay panic. 

"I saw the texts on our groupchat," Gina started. "Am I that bad?" 

"No, you aren't! I was just-" 

"Sorry! I was just joking. I know you don't think of me that way." Gina teased Nini as she gave a light laugh. 

If Nini could like Gina even more, she did now. 

Gina began placing her bass guitar next to Nini's guitar and sat next to her. Not too close but Nini wished that she sat even more closer. 

"So what did you do over the past few days?" Gina starts questioning. 

"Did you write any new songs?" 

"I didn't write anything." Nini stops. At all."

"You're lying."

"How did you know?" Nini defended. 

"You just admitted it yourself!" 

"So… What's this song that you must lie to me about?" Gina questioned Nini again. 

"It's nothing!" Nini stumbled over her words. 

"If you say so…" Gina gave Nini a unconvinced look which made her burst into laughter.

"What's with that look?" Nini said after each wheeze. 

"You mean this?" Gina gave Nini the same look which prompted even more laughter and wheezing from Nini. 

"Stop, you're going to kill me!" Nini said airly as she tried to gasp for air from laughing too much. 

"If you get killed by me, does that mean that I can finally get you to tell me about the song that you wrote?" 

"If i was dead, how can I even tell you that?" Nini's voice was raspy after laughing. 

"Hm, fair point."

Both of them stared at each other before bursting into giggles once again, this time with Gina laughing along. 

Just as they were about to collect their breaths, Ashlyn and Kourtney rushed into the studio, with their bags and Kourtney's guitar before saying out: 

"So what did we miss?" 

* * *

Kourtney went up to Nini as all of them were walking to their favourite Chinese restaurant after the practice while Gina and Ashlyn were busy talking about a new show they were both into. 

"You didn't answer our question," Kourtney said. "What's got the two of you laughing so much before practice?" 

"As I said before, It was really nothing!" 

"Yeah, sure…" 

"We were just laughing about something she did," Nini interjected. 

"So basically, nothing?" 

Nini nodded her head as a reply. 

"Next question, have you finished writing your song yet?" 

"I wish… I didn't really want to write a song that's too cheesy but yet I want to sing what I think about her." Nini vented. 

"God, I wish I was her sometimes. She can always puts feelings to words and I…"

Nini stopped speaking and whipped out her phone. She started to furiously move her fingers on her phone, presumably typing something. 

"What are you doing?" questioned Kourtney. 

"New lyric idea," Nini replied as she places her phone back into her pocket. 

Kourtney stared at Nini before Nini pointed finger guns to her and starts walking ahead. 

"You know, you're really weird sometimes..." Kourtney muttered under her breath before running to catch up with the rest of them. 

* * *

It was that Sunday. 

**kourt**

it's gig time bby

Like what Kourtney said. 

Nini pulled up the sleeves of her good luck sweater. They were getting smaller as the years goes by. She remembered wearing them for her first musical, the band's first gig and now this. 

Today's gig felt different than the others. Every gig feels different. But this particular gig just felt way more special that only Nini could tell you. Or maybe Kourtney and Ashlyn who knows what's she's going to do. 

Her guitar case was draped over her shoulder as she brisk walked to the bar where the gig was going to happen. She waved to the bar manager as she entered the bar and saw her band members taking out their instruments. 

"It's so weird to be the late one here," Nini started as she took out her guitar from her case. 

"Same for me as being one of the earliest," Kourtney replied back as she doubled checked her guitar, making sure there wasn't any strings broken. 

Gina was strumming her bass and was preoccupied with doing sound checks before she saw Nini. 

"Wait, are you wearing your good luck sweater?" 

"Y-yeah!" 

"Must be something very important happening today for you to wear that…" Gina trailed off as she was focused on her bass again. 

Nini could feel Ashlyn and Kourtney's stares on them and immediately tried to focus on her guitar instead of her reddening cheeks. 

* * *

Gina peeked from the side of the stage and went up to her band members. 

"There's so many people? I thought it would be lesser than this." 

"Didn't you check this list? They said 50+ people bought tickets to see us." Kourtney replied. 

"I saw… But I wasn't expecting this much!"

Nini could only stare at Gina while she tries to let her nerves calm down.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ashlyn voiced out, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

"I'm fine," Nini gave Ashlyn a reassuring smile. "Just a little nervous, that's all."

"I know you're afraid but I'm sure everything would go great!" Ashlyn paused before continuing. "Even if it doesn't, we'll still be here for you." 

She let out a small "thank you" as she walked away. 

"Starting in 5 minutes!" The staff called out. 

Nini gulped and wiggled her hands around. 

She gestured everyone to huddle up with her as she made a speech. 

"We've worked hard for this and I'm sure we can make everyone have a fun time with us. Let's go!" 

As they let out a cheer, they high fived each other, with confidence plastered on their faces. 

"Introducing, G Clover!" The announcer called them and gestured them to move on stage before leaving. 

All of them entered the stage and went to their places, with Kourtney, Gina and Nini plugging their guitars and Ashlyn sitting on the drum set, taking out her drumsticks. 

"Hello everyone! I would like to thank all of you for coming on this amazing Sunday!" 

The crowd whoops. 

"With all that said, let's start!" 

"3, 2, 1, let's go!" Ashlyn said as she clapped her drumsticks against each together to the beat. 

Kourtney and Gina looked at each other before playing and Nini slowly eased into the atmosphere as she started to sing and play her guitar too. 

* * *

"Encore, Encore!" The crowd chants loudly after the gig has ended. 

All of them were sweating profusely but they all grinned. Kourtney and Ashlyn gave Nini a nod before putting down their instruments and heading out of the stage. 

Gina kept looking back at her but Nini mouthed out, "Follow them." so Gina left the stage with confusion. 

"This final song is for a certain someone," Nini nervously said, "And if you're listening to this, I just want to say I like you and I'm sorry for not admitting it sooner."

Nini starts singing with only her guitar playing as the crowd went silent. 

" _Hey, won't you call me back?_

_Cause I've been waiting for a text back..."_

Gina peered from backstage and stared at Nini as she sang, in wonder. 

* * *

"Thank you so _so_ much for being such a wonderful audience!"

The crowd gave a huge applause as Nini unplugged her guitar and left the stage. 

"That was amazing!" Ashlyn started as she gave nini a hug. "I didn't know your song was that great!" 

Nini could see Gina coming up to her as she nodded along to what Ashlyn was saying. 

"It would be so cool to record it for our future album…" 

Ashlyn's voice become further and further as she was led away by Kourtney who noticed what was going to happen. 

"Hey." Gina greeted as she walked over to her.

"Hi."

"So I was wondering if…" Both of them started at the same time.

"You, first," Nini grinned nervously even though she knew what Gina was about to ask. 

"Was that song about... Me?" 

"Yeah…" Nini avoided Gina's gaze completely and focused on something instead of her. 

"I don't know what to say…" 

"You don't have to say anything! I'm not going to pressure you. You can take as much time as you need to think about it. Or reject me. I'm okay with being friends. As long as we can still talk. I don't want to ruin anything with us. Maybe it was a bad idea to sing that. I never should have d-" Nini rambled before she was interrupted by Gina. 

"I'll love to go out with you, if that's what you meant."

"... What?"

"Is this real? Do you actually want to be my girlfriend?" Nini was still in shock. 

"I can't believe you asked me out first. I was going to do that," Gina pouts. 

"Wait, seriously?" 

"I had this whole other plan of going on a date with you but I guess I don't have to do that now." 

Gina opened her mouth to say something but before she could do that, she could hear someone, presumably one of the staff members, calling her.

"Shit. I need to go now..."

There was an awkward tension. Nini was staring at Gina, still flabbergasted while Gina kept looking back as she walks away.

Gina suddenly strides towards Nini and gave a soft kiss to her cheek, as if they were in a movie.

"Meet me outside the bar." She mouthed to Nini before she last looked back, a smile on her face.

Nini stared at Gina's back as she touched her cheek. She couldn't believe this was actually happening. 

Kourtney glanced at Gina as she walked past her, before walking hesitantly to Nini.

"So... how did it go?" 

"Great." Nini gave the biggest grin she ever made.

She was so glad that her good luck sweater was still kicking. 

**Author's Note:**

> [this version](https://youtu.be/T1snyfGA2ZU) of she plays bass by beabadoobee is what i imagine nini would perform it like and i feel like the band sound like the regrettes!! (their band is punk rock basically) 
> 
> this is actually the first time that I wrote this much and i'm very proud of myself for that :D
> 
> (edit: can you still believe that i was one of the first few people to mainly write about gini wow what a time)


End file.
